that's "Billy Ocean Colour Scene" oh and being from Brum didn't help.

had a lot to do with it. Theme music for TFI, heavily used by Guy Madonna fella in his films, backing band for Weler. They were everywhere in 1996 and coming in at the tail end of britpop were ripe for music journalists slings and arrows.

If you youtube Sway Ocean Colour Scene there's their 1990 Word apperance which is quite good.

Dadrock was the insult of the day, maybe from landfill indie types disliking earnest musicianship? Brummagem roots never endear either, sadly, unless it can be as part of cliche ridden ridicule.
Hey, they even do a credible (if not necessarily creditable) version of I want to see the bright lights tonight!

I think the fact that they were so heavily associated with Chris Evans probably did them few favours. He played them incessantly on his radio show and my - almost certainly faulty - recollection is that they were on TFI Friday every other week.

Very underrated band. Excellent inventive musicians and pretty handy wordsmith/photographer in Simon Fowler.

Unfortunately aligned to the Weller/Gallagher type axis just as Gallagher's cocaine ego was getting the better of everyone and a whole rake of decent bands did seem to get tarred with the same brush.

I can't remember OCS being used by Evans. Wasn't that Reef? Place your hands?

Apart from the reasons already cited, Ocean Colour Scene simply died of natural causes. They were a half-decent band with a few good songs. They were reasonably popular for a few years. Then interest gradually melted away. It’s the natural lifespan of a pop group.
I think in some ways we’ve come to expect two things of pop acts that don’t, and shouldn’t, and needn’t apply to the vast majority of them: a) that they should be wildly innovative; b) that they should have a long career.

p.s. Aren’t they still going, when Craddock isn’t on Weller duty?
p.p.s. Jimmy Young introducing them as “Ocean Colour Scheme” on his Radio 2 isn’t an urban myth. I heard it.

If they'd started five years later, wouldn't they have had Coldplay's career? They were already on the downslide by this stage:

Nodge, Evans played The Day We Caught the Train and Riverboat Song to death on his Radio 1 breakfast show. And, thinking about it, he used the latter track as the intro music whenever a new guest appeared on TFI, which may explain my recollection that they were on every other week...

He played Reef a lot too, mind you!

Never listened to Evans - I think that must have been the same era as when Danny Baker had his GLR Breakfast Show.

God, Reef, now there was a godawful racket. And the insult of suggesting their name was to be in homage to Free. No contest, caterwaulers, even if Paul Rogers went on to become a big girls blouse.

Perhaps they went the same way as all other bands who had too long names that became abbreviated. The same fate befell ELP, ELO, BAD, BOC, AFT, B&Q, etc.

OMITD??
NRPS???
YWKUBTTOTD???? (or is it AYWKUBTTOTD?)

?

... my catch all phrase for OCS back in the day was "music for people who don't like music," see also The Beautiful South, Dire Straits, Snow Patrol, Coldplay, James Blunt et al.

Basically any popular band where I can't find a single friend of mine in possession of any of their stuff got tarred with this brush by me, and the thing is I seemed to end up getting proven right, in the sense that proper music critics often thought the same. It takes a brave soul to stand against the tide and state loudly that unfashionable bands like this are genuinely good. Plus I suppose this attitude is a critcism of fans and not the actual bands which is both childish and wrong.

Not that I actually care though. OCS were shite, their fans were dullards and the thought of attending a gig of theirs with a bunch of lagered up idiots who couldn't get Oasis tickets (or Chris Blooming Evens) filled me with horror.

...personally speaking, and him giving The Ting Tings album 5 stars made me chuckle. I do remember Ocean Colour Scene; I've never loved them or hated them to be honest, I've never owned any of their stuff and I never found them especially dreadful. It was the Weller/Gallagher association as stated above that made people dislike them, I believe. There are far, far worse 'indie' bands around today in my opinion, and then, for that matter (Northern Uproar??).

Music journalists hated them for not being or glamorous or elegant enough - it was all Romo, Suede and so on. I remember there being a big kick against 'maturity' in music - the first Supergrass album got slagged off in select for having worryuing signs of maturity. Any trace of 'muso'-ness was frowned upon.

What is conveniently forgotten about the 'Britpop' years is that it was not as homogenous as people make it out - it wasn't all white indie boys playing jaunty pop . It was also a time when Orbital, Tricky, Massive Attack, Goldie and Underworld were huge and it was looked down upon not to be innovative or forwards-looking - OCS and Weller were the epitome of this.

It didn't help that The Day We Caught The Train was abysmal.

They also came across as being very boorish and dull.

EDIT - they sold shitloads of records though - I think what happened is most people thought 'one OCS record is enough for me' and then they slowly sank. Simon being gay has nothing to do with it.

1. Terrible band name that means absolutely nothing. Did someone mention Coldplay? Check.
2. Ripped off Beatles song and played with Paul Weller, therefore generically being the missing link between Weller and Oasis, therefore handy target for blaming all of Britpop on. Check.
3. Irritating album title including terrible pun. Check.

All seems to be in order.

was all that was required to pale OCS into the shade.

I bought their debut album from a bargain bin. At the time there were simply far too many people worshipping the addled arrogance and copycat strumalongs of the brothers G.

I've got approaching 3000 albums now and they take up a whole room of my house, but once upon a time I had less than 10 and three of them were Ocean Colour Scene albums. These were my early, faltering steps into music collecting and clearly I had a lot to learn.

Born in 77, I'd been in nappies for punk, failed to notice the New Romantics because I was watching You And Me (as was Noel Gallagher of course which led to She's Electric), had my nose in the Just William books whilst Morrissey was twirling flowers on TOTP, and was out playing football till it got dark whilst Rick Astley and Jive Bunny were top of the charts. During Britpop I had a note from my mum excusing me from class.

I continued to be (in hindsight blisslessly) oblivious to all musical trends until well into the 90s. I watched news reports of Oasis vs Blur and wondered who either were, and Radiohead were a completely new band to me when I first heard Paranoid Android.

The music I heard most in my first 20 years was that which my dad played in the house and in the car on summer holidays - mostly stuff from before I was born which I liked but wouldn't admit to at the time because of the legal requirement that all teenagers abhor their parents, their tastes and all that they stand for.

When I eventually got a CD player, I very slowly picked up a few CDs over the next couple of years, and played them endlessly whilst studying for exams. My naive ears had quite liked a couple of OCS songs that I had heard on the radio so I went out and bought their albums and somehow they became the dominant act in my meagre collection. After getting and liking Moseley Shoals and Marchin' Already, I even got their first self-titled album though, in my first display of critical analysis, I quickly decided it was awful and have never played it since.

One reason that a dozen years on I now have 3000 albums is I've kept every album I've ever bought, so without ever having been played in full that debut OCS album is still in my collection. In fact, being an incurable completist, I kept on buying and liking parts of their albums and even acquired several singles. I'd go so far as to say One From The Modern is perhaps my favourite of their albums though ask me now and I can't recall or name a single track from their last several albums. Come to think, not sure I've even listened to the last one I got from Fopp's bargain rack.

Overall, I think they're unfairly derided - maybe not a band that brought much that was new or inventive to the table, but far from the worst band around at the time.

I do agree that they pick terrible titles for their albums though.

They were a good bar band. I bought the first album and brought it back to Our Price the next day. I own two singles, The Riverboat Song and one from 1997 that I can't remember.

What sank them was they were just average with a couple of good tunes and were really nothing special.

They were name checked by Chris Evans, Oasis and Paul (Worsul Gummage) Weller. If that doesn't finish you, and you just don't have the songs, nothing will !

But I'm glad you have enjoyed them.

As already mentioned OCS were so of their time that when the Britpop lad scene died they died with it. That is the danger of aligning yourself with any movement.
Another point is what kind of signal is being sent out when half the band would rather play in someone elses band than their own.
Does not show great faith or confidence in your own abilities.
They are not alone by any means.
Travis, The Bluetones even The Charlatans are only playing to the faithful these days.

Liked them a lot. That was enough for me to hate them. It's the Toploader effect. To steal a quote from Nicky Wire, Toploader were worse than Hitler. It didn't help that I once lived in a flat above a group of students who played "Dancing In The Moonlight" over and over at high volume. I hold Jamie Oliver responsible for this.

In fact, I think Toploader may be the worst band of all time. Seriously. Maybe this needs a thread of its own.

....I think the problem to be overcome for all bands and artists is image: OCS were perceived as irrevocably dull and naff, Toploader, for all I know, probably likewise. When the only spice is a gay singer, or being the father of a "celebrity" baby (I forget whether the Toploader bass guitarist was Gail Porters paramour or hers out of All Saints), when neither is necessarily all that out of the ordinary. Think about most of those who are perceived as OK, they all have an identifiable image, even if one designed to annoy, or becoming so by default. Dullness is the mediocrity factor that can swamp even half a talent. Even the Word favourite, RT, has had more favour since the beret began, his bald and proud and brief trilby period being less catchy on the eye (ironically, despite the music then produced, think Hand of Kindness, being amongst his best in the solo years.)

This thread touches on something which has bugged me for years - the use of 'pub rock' as a criticism. I love pubs, I love rock, the best of all possible things is to combine the two. If you can move people with your music up close, in a bar, without an arena-style sound and light system, you've cracked it.
I seriously question whether people who need the band to be 'spiced up' with fathering a celebrity baby or having a gay singer (and how, exactly, is that in any way spicing it up?) are actually music fans at all: aren't they just entertainment consumers? And wouldn't the rest of us be better off if they stuck to computer games or Hollywood fims?

and the Rumour were a great bar band. Graham Parker went on the bigger things and still releases albums of some merit now. However the Rumour released at least one album without him and perhaps two. The one I bought and quickly got rid of was absolute garbage. As a foil for Parker they were brilliant - on there own they were tedious despite being excellent musicians. Sometimes you need a frontman and I dont think OCS had one. This may be part of the reason - being Brummies may also be part of it. we are often derided even though we have best self-deprecating humour in the country.

Don't think I've posted on here before, but have long been an avid reader.

I liked, and still like, OCS, The Day We Caught The Train included, though I don't listen to them much these days.

Re Toploader, it was their guitarist Dan Hipgrave who was married to Gail Porter. If your best and only really well-known song is a cover, that doesn't tend to bode well. The albeit far more credible, and much better, Futureheads will only ever be known by more than about 100 of us for Hounds Of Love.

As in "Grand Fete - on the playing field (or if wet in the sports hall.)"

Notwithstanding the genuine fans who have been washed up in this thread, OCS to me were division 2 in pretty much every way possible, reliable festival standbys, empty calorie singalong dadrock forgotten the moment they left the stage, taking up the slack for the star Britpoppers. All of which makes me sound like I have a vendetta against them, which I don't, though they did blaze the trail for dull, unadventurous lad-rock (like many here, my first thought when I saw Toploader was "OCS!") All that said, I've only ever heard OCS' singles, maybe the albums and B-sides might change my mind, but life's way too short...

Well, I'll be honest, I'm still very much an OCS fan. I think that people nowadays, as like was said before, say they're shite cos its something like a "knee-jerk" reaction. Just like saying Kula Shaker are shite. But hey-ho, thats everyones opinion.

Yes, in recent years OCS have gone downhill a bit. Every album from One From The Modern, sounds rather dated. However, their debut album that was released in 1991, still sounds brilliant and would fit in perfectly with todays music scene. I think so anyway. Those songs had so much vigour and life.

Moreover, even though OCS are derided for their music, the fact remains that they are FUCKIN AMAZING MUSCIANS. Steve Craddock is an amazing guitar player, Simon an amazing singer, Oscar is a drummer I consider to be quite an influence on my own drumming and Damon is a top bassist. I don't think with todays bands like Arctic Chiefs and the Kaiser Monkeys, the actual members would be regarded as brilliant musicians in their own right.

So thats my two cents thrown in. I like OCS,Kula Shaker and a couple of Reef songs, and I ain't ashamed to say it.

So go ahead and laugh, I really don't give two fucks.

Good day. xxxx

And in regards to the question about what sank OCS, I'd say it was actually the media i.e. radio stations and the like. As soon as OCS released "Profit In Peace", it all went downhill for OCS. Apparently "Profit.." sounded "too old" for Radio 1 to justify putting it on their playlist. And yes, I know I said thier subsequent albms do sound dated, I just wanted to point out that, when Stereophonics released their laid back acoustic type album, they somehow got play listed, their videos got played, and then the album stayed in the top 10 for freeking ages. Hhhhmmm....funny that, considering the Stereophonics are absoloute shite compared to OCS. In my opinion anyway.

And Springer, whats so wrong about The Cult, or Lostprophets? They have some good tunes. I thought the ...Prophets were still flavor of the month with the whole Kerrang crowd....

Moreover, if this subject was so "inconsequential", then why bother replying? Hhhmmmm....

Anyway...Good Day. xxxxxxxx